What we do at WesterosCat – Hva vi gjør

We follow the PawPeds health programme for HD. We x-ray all breeding animals through the programme, with public results then automatically added to the PawPeds database. All readings of x-rays is done by the same veterinary expert Dr Per Eksell (before 1 Oct 2014 Dr Lars Audell), to ensure the same scale of reading for all animals. He is also an expert on HD in cats, which is expressed differently than in dogs (Keller 1999, Perry 2016). PawPeds is a full health programme with total transparency, all results are public to the benefit of the breeder communities all over the world.

We strongly recommend all Maine Coon breeders to x-ray their cats through PawPeds.

HD can be mild, and a cat can often live well with this, but it should not be used for breeding. In severe form HD is a very painful and disabling disease. For cats that are not too heavily affected and with no patella luxation as additional condition, there are medical or surgical treatments available. Some cats are diagnosed with milder degrees of HD, but show no clinical symptoms until they are older and develop ostoarthritis.

Maine Coon with severe HD, 3-3 in PawPeds health programme.

How to test?

The actual x-ray scan should be performed by an experienced veterinary, and the animal should not be heavily sedated, only given a mild relaxant. Ideally the hip x-rays should be done between ages 10 months and 2 years old.

Statistics – Statistikk

Summing up numbers from over 3000 x-rayed Maine Coons in PawPeds, and over 2700 in OFA (Loder 2017), it shows that:

at least 25 % of all Maine Coons have HD of some degree

approximately 7-10 % have moderate or severe HD and should not be used for breeding

What is known is that the risk of getting a cat with HD is much smaller if both parents have normal hips. This is no guarantee, but it betters the chances. HD is most probably recessive and polygenetic.

PawPeds put together this overview 25 Jan 2018:

“gränsfall” = borderline

HD-results for the WesterosCats

The results for our cats that have been x-rayed and evaluated in PawPeds.

Katt

HD-status i PawPeds

HD sire – far

HD dam – mor

Gersimi

Planned May 2019

Left: Normal, Right: Grade 1

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Gilly

Planned May 2019

Left: Normal, Right: Grade 1

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Rodrik

Planned Jan 2019

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Drogon

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Daenerys

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

William

Left: Normal, Right: Grade 1

image OK, not evaluated in PP

image OK, not evaluated in PP

Brienne

Left: Grade 1, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Betzy

Left: Grade 1, Right: Grade 1

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Fleming

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

unknown

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Aegon

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Arya

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Suki

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Olenna

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

Left: Normal, Right: Normal

India

Left: Grade 2, Right: Grade 2

“Moderate” in OFA

“Good” in OFA

Hieronymus

Left: Grade 2, Right: Grade 2 (6,5 years old)

unknown

“Good” in OFA

Viggo

Left: Grade 3, Right: Grade 3

unknown

unknown

Tequila

Left: Grade 3, Right: Grade 3

unknown

unknown

See also each cat’s page, and pedigree with health results in PawPeds.

“Clinically normal cats may have a certain degree of laxity in the stifle joint, evident as medial patellar subluxation (< grade 1). There is a weak association between MPL and HD, and both conditions may develop, alone or in combination, more frequently than has been reported.”

This study of 684 cats of 12 breeds conclude that “the radiographic appearance of hip dysplasia in cats is different than in dogs. A shallow acetabulum with remodeling and proliferation involving the cranio-dorsal acetabular margin were the most common radiographic signs. Minimal remodeling of the femoral neck was seen.”

Research revealing statistics

“Methods: The complete hip dysplasia registry (public and private) collected by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals through April 2015 was accessed. There were 2732 unique cats; 2708 (99.1%) were Maine Coons, and only these were studied. Variables analyzed were sex, month/season of birth and hip dysplasia score. Two groups were created: those with and without FHD. P <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Conclusions and relevance: This is the largest demographic study of FHD in the Maine Coon cat. The overall prevalence in the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals registry was 24.9%, and slightly higher in males (27.3%) than females (23.3%). Dysplasia was more severe in bilateral than unilateral cases and with increasing age. Caution should be used when extrapolating these findings to other feline breeds or other groups of Maine Coon cats. Further studies need to be performed among other breeds and geographic locations to better understand the demographics of feline hip dysplasia.”

Other research

This study of dogs shows that early age for HD screening is reliable, and we can assume that numbers for cats are similar.

Researchers found a “100% reliability for a preliminary grade of excellent being normal at 2 years of age (excellent, good, or fair). There was 97.9% reliability for a preliminary grade of good being normal at 2 years of age, and 76.9% reliability for a preliminary grade of fair being normal at 2 years of age. … For normal hip conformations, the reliability was 89.6% at 3-6 months, 93.8% at 7-12 months, and 95.2% at 13-18 months. These results suggest that preliminary evaluations of hip joint status in dogs are generally reliable. However, dogs that receive a preliminary evaluation of fair or mild hip joint conformation should be reevaluated at an older age (24 months).”

This study shows that a clinical examiniation is not enough to discover which cats has joint problems – Degenerative joint dessase (DJD).

“Joints withDJD tended to have a decreased range of motion. The presence of pain increased the odds of having DJD in the elbow (right: 5.5; left: 4.5); the presence of pain in the lower back increased the odds of spinal DJD being present (2.97 for lumbar; 4.67 for lumbo-sacral).

Conclusions: Radiographic DJD cannot be diagnosed with certainty using palpation or goniometry. However, negative findings tend to predict radiographically normal joints. Palpation and goniometry may be used as a tool to help to screen cats, mostly to rule out DJD.”